


Stares

by amanda_jolene



Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: F/M, Gen, protective!Finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-09 20:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1996230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amanda_jolene/pseuds/amanda_jolene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn’s never noticed people staring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stares

Finn’s never noticed people staring. 

Well, maybe he has. He’s a young, fit lad and he knows there are girls whose eyes follow him coming and going down the hall, barmaids that eye him across the counter, lads who size him up and find him worthy of their time, but he’s never really thought about it. Because he’s never had someone look at him cross or look at him like he wasn’t worth the oxygen he was breathing or the space he consumed. 

He thinks about it now. 

When they got back together, they sat down and had such a serious, adult conversation that he swears he aged ten years but he walked away with a better understanding of how her mind worked and played with reality. But the first time they go out together, he’s acutely aware that he’s watching everyone they pass. Nothing happens (he didn’t figure it would) but a girl does look over at them and he can’t decipher the expression on her face so he gives her a hard glare until she turns away and he’s pleased with himself.

They’re at college the next week and his fan club has stalked them out in the library. Rae’s on the defense and she retreats into herself so fast that Finn doesn’t even have a chance to stop her. They girls are asking about his next game and if he’s going to the after party and did he like Robbie Williams? He can’t answer because his eyes are on Rae and she’s already half-way to the door by the time he realizes she’s on the move and he grabs his bag and calls, “Rae! Wait!” 

One of the girls whispers, “I don’t know why he even cares.”

He turns sharply and spits two words he swore he’d never utter at a girl. “Piss off.” The venom in his voice and the anger in his face is enough to send all four girls scattering in different directions. Rae’s waiting for him by the door and he gives her a smile and a shrug. But later that night, when he’s alone in his bed and it’s the third night in a row he can’t sleep, he’ll start to understand what she meant when she said people were cruel. It’s not as bad as she imagines it to be but it’s enough to put a lump in his throat and make him think about setting the entire town on fire. 

He’s defensive. More defensive than he’s ever been in his life because he knows what it’s like to lose her and he’s not going through that again. He pounds it into his head that he has to nip every stare, every comment before it escapes, has to shut everyone down before they get in her head again because he’s not going to allow some twat with a fucked opinion ruin his life again. 

She notices the change in. Small at first, a shift behind his eyes. It’s not long before he’s constantly watching everyone, wary when people approach and it all boils to a head one night when a guy at the bar makes a stray comment about her. She doesn’t even hear what he says but Finn bristles up, like a cat ready to fight, and tells the guy to step outside. Both men are intoxicated and Chop’s telling the other guy to calm down and Rae is telling Finn not to be stupid.

“Best listen to your fat bitch, mate.” The guy calls over Chop’s head. 

(No one is sure if Chop or Finn hit the guy first but it doesn’t matter because all 3 of them get thrown out and it takes Archer and Rae 5 minutes to get them untangled when they continue to fight in the alley.)

“What’s gotten into you?” Rae asks him when she gets him back to his house. He’s sitting on the bathroom counter while she cleans he scrapes up (drunk fighting obviously involved a lot of stumbling around). 

“Nothing. Just didn’t like what he said.” 

“It’s not just tonight. You’ve been on edge the last two weeks.” 

He’s not sure how to say what he’s feeling (not sure if it’d make sense through the slur of alcohol) so he just frowns and says, “I’m not letting them hurt you anymore.” 

“No one’s hurting me.” 

His mouth sets in a hard line and he wants to remind her that she showed up at his door one night and crunched his heart under her shoe because she couldn’t stand the way people looked at them (his brain is too fuzzy to remember that it had less to do with others and more to do with herself). But before he can gear up to argue, she wraps her arms around him and hugs him close, not caring that he was bleeding on her favorite shirt. “It’s ok now. It doesn’t hurt anymore. You can be grumpy Finn all you want but please, please stop being angry Finn. It’s just not right.” 

“Yeah, but what if-“ 

“If someone looks at us crazy, then kiss me. Just fucking let them know it doesn’t matter.

Angry Finn leaves as suddenly as he came and he stops glaring at people in the hall and starts kissing Rae a lot more (sometimes there’s no one even looking).


End file.
